1983 Cadillac Coupe deVille - Proverbial Dirt Nap

The early 1980's were not a good time for Cadillac. Questionable product planning along with poor execution at a time when younger-target buyers were gravitating to German makes and models almost doomed what had been one of the world's most respected if not hallowed automobile brands. In many ways, it's amazing the moniker is around today because of how bad things had gotten and gotten very quickly back then. This 1983 Cadillac Coupe deVille was a poster car of those woe begotten days although some of what ailed this one, in particular, have been remedied. 

That's because the engine it came from the factory has been replaced with a 1987-1995 GM 350-cubic inch V-8. There aren't any more details in the Facebook Marketplace ad about it other than the poster claims it has a new four-barrel carburetor. All GM "350's" made after 1986, even ones in trucks, had at least throttle-body fuel injection so some work has been done to it. Cadillac offered a 350-cubic inch, throttle body fuel injected in 1992 and it made 185-horsepower and 300-pound feet of torque. Nothing to write home about today but in the early 90's for a  Cadillac, that was quite improvement over what they had not long before under their hoods. Who knows, maybe this began life as a 240-horse, L98 with 330-foot pounds of twist.  

The engine this car was built with was Cadillac's infamous "HT4100". "HT" was for "High Tech" and many joke that stood for "hook and tow". The 4.1-liter V-8 was originally developed for Cadillac's front-wheel-drive "C-body", full-size cars that came to market for model-year 1985. With the abortive V8-6-4 of 1981 infamy, Cadillac had to do something. And quickly. Thing is, they made a bad thing worse stuffing the '82's with the HT. That's saying a lot too considering how bad the V8-6-4 was. 

In addition to being just plain gutless, early HT's inhaled head gaskets, had cooling and oiling issues, replacement parts were expensive and finding a shop to work on them was next to impossible. Many an  HT would conk out without warning too. Hopefully still within warranty but often times not.  

Why Cadillac rushed the HT into these cars and not replace the V8-6-4 with Oldsmobile's bullet-proof 307-cubic inch V-8 or, heaven forbid, Chevrolet's 305, both of which could get 20+ miles per gallon with a tall axle ratio and overdrive, is a question we'll never get an answer to. Thing is, even if they did, these cars, that were so crisp, new and highly regarded in 1977, had become woefully out-of-step with the times. 

I can't imagine a then 35-to-40-year-old "yuppie" (young urban professional) buying this; these they left to the blue hairs and old at heart. The sharper styled Eldorado was better but only so much so and it too was saddled with the HT. Old's diesel "350" V-8 was just as bad (maybe worse) making the credit option Buick 4.1-liter V-6 the best engine available. Again, not a good time for Cadillac. 

Not twenty-years prior, even fifteen, a Cadillac was what you drove to make a fashion statement that you had "it" or wanted to appear you did. You drove a new Cadillac in 1983 and the fashion statement you made was you were one step away from the proverbial dirt map. 

The engine in this car doesn't mean this is a screaming quarter-miler, mind you. Most likely it still has the 2.29:1 axle which would do nothing for get up and go. Being a Cadillac, it would also have over-boosted, slow steering and the suspension set up for a cushy ride so soft you might think something wrong with it. Swap the rear gears for at least a set of 2.73's if not a god's-green-earth 3.08, to make the most of the engine's beefier torque curve, add Bilstein gas shocks and thicker sway bars fore and aft and you might really have something. I'd swap the steering box as well with something like the F41 Chevrolet's set up. 

All that costs, though. The gear change and suspension upgrades would run you the dark side of $3,000. Cost of admission for this is $10,000 - that's almost double what average retail is and about two-grand more than high retail. Another case of someone charging for the moon for an engine swap. So, for thirteen-large you get a pretty solid that's not worth half that. I'd think that kind of money better burned on something a little older, in similar shape and more complete out of the box. 

 

1985 Cadillac Coupe deVille - Happy Easter

It was a lovely, sun splashed spring afternoon around easter time day on Long Island in 1984 when I first saw one of Cadillac's all-new-for 1985, front-wheel-drive deVille's. I don't remember if it was a coupe like this '85 decorated like the easter bunny but I do recall a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach realizing that my beloved General Motors had made another hideous mistake. 

Was there another time in the annals of automobile history when a manufacturer immolated themselves to the degree that Cadillac did in the early-to-mid-1980's? GM in general but what happened to Cadillac was particularly harrowing. Whether it was the hump-back 1980 Seville, V-8-6-4, HT4100 (engine) or the creme-de-la-creme, the Chevrolet Cavalier based Cimarron,  you didn't have to be an automobile connoisseur to appreciate that GM's luxury brand had run aground. And the hits just kept on coming. 

These cars were actually the second wave of shrinking to GM's full size line, the first of course occurring in 1977 when they began their great downsizing epoch. The front-wheel-drive deVille's were actually supposed to launch in 1982, but development issues tapped the brakes on their debut into 1984. In the old way of GM doing things, they launched them in early '84 and called them 1985's. No harm, no foul. Well, at least in terms of when they introduced them. Can't say that about the cars themselves. 

Irony of ironies, the one thing that was ready to go by 1982 was their engines. Well, supposedly ready to go. The 249-cubic inch, aluminum block, iron head V-8 developed exclusively for these front-wheel-drivers was dropped into Cadillac's existing models after the V8-6-4 debacle of 1981. That it made all of 135-horsepower and (good grief) 190-foot pounds of torque and was tasked with moving some cars weighing north of two-tons wasn't the biggest issue facing the "HT4100", catastrophic engine failure was. 

The HT or "High Tech" had such maladies as head gaskets blowing, cam bearings going kaput, oil pumps giving up the ghost and on and on. For a company that had such a stellar reputation up to that point with V-8 engine development, it was particularly vexing. They'd fix most if not all of the issues with the HT by the end of the decade but Cadillac took a serious kick in the giblets to their reputation at a time when failure was not an option. 

The styling, or lack thereof, is what depressed me the most. I could have cared less if these were front-wheel-drive with transverse mounted V-8's or not and handled better than any Cadillac before them. This college sophomore thought there were ugly. Apparently, I was fairly alone in that sentiment as these flew out of dealerships. At first. Not unlike the first MY for Chevrolet Citations and their various spinoffs. 

This pink-on-white CDV is for sale on Facebook Marketplace with an asking price of $990. A scant 67,000-miles on it's analog ticker. Why so cheap? Blown engine. Won't even crank. Sounds to me like its aluminum oil pump croaked and the engine is totally locked up. Sort of a shame but not really. I mean, seriously. And this came from the factory looking like this. 

General Motors famed design honcho Bill Mitchell retired in 1977 and the last designs he was directly responsible for where GM's class-of-'77 full-sized models and what would become the 1979 downsized E-body Cadillac Eldorado, Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera. You can see a familial resemblance in those designs harkening back to his glory days of the 1960's. He had nothing to do with the 1978 shrink-rayed intermediates and anything else that came after. Including, of course, these cars. 

The "heather-firemist" hue and padded landau top do the blocky, bolt-upright styling no favors. At least the interior is handsome and is as cavernous as the insides of the deVille these replaced. Perhaps more so given the lack of a driveshaft hump. To that degree, these were engineering watersheds. 

Even if this car was a different color and it didn't have the silly padded top, I can't do the mental gymnastics to make the more than fair asking price seem worthwhile. As far as the engine goes, there's no shortage of zesty options available but something tells me someone will scoop this up and gut the insides and throw out the rest. 

Not unlike what we do to easter eggs. 

1970 Cadillac Coupe deVille - They Said There'd Be No Math

Today's Facebook Marketplace gem is a 1970 Cadillac Coupe deVille originally hailing from the great state of Utah and now resides in god forsaken Lorain, Ohio roughly thirty miles or so west of Cleveland. Thanks to the ship building industry, Lorain used to be a bustling little city on the shores of Lake Erie but when the plants closed Lorain became a ghost town. Through my goggles, somehow this big old, patina rich Cadillac fits right into the motif of what's left of the town. 

Cadillac built a "Coupe deVille" from 1949 through 1993 in various guises and with the exception of the 1985-1988 models, they were all big if not ginormous. At 225 inches long, our 1970 here was replaced in 1971 by a model that was just under an inch longer. That was nothing, though. By 1976, due to federally mandated five-mile per hour "safety bumpers", a Coupe deVille was more than 230 inches long; try backing that sucker up let alone this one in the undersized parking garage at the mall. Well, no one goes to malls anymore so you should be ok. This vintage was originally launched, or were, ha-ha, christened, in 1965 with GM making subtle and not so subtle styling changes every year through 1970.  

Biggest visual difference is the headlights on the 1965-1968 models are stacked, on the '69 and '70 models they're side-by-side. Personally, I prefer the side-by-side look but I wouldn't kick a stacked headlight '65-'68 model out of my garage. Under the hood, 1965-1967's have the 1964 vintage Cadillac 429 engine; '68-'70's have the "472". 

Cadillac generously claimed the "472" made three hundred seventy-five (gross rated) horsepower. I back about forty-percent off that gross rating to get the net output and, they said there'd be no math when I started this blog, that puts it at about two hundred twenty-five brake horses. These big mills being all about torque, slicing forty-percent off the gross torque rating of five hundred twenty-five foot-pounds gives us roughly three hundred and fifteen. Which seems about right given these handsome 4,700 brutes were clocked zero-to-sixty in around ten seconds. Certainly "slow" by today's standards but more than adequate fifty-years ago. I'd ditch this insane gas hog of an engine for an LS but...that's just me. 

1969 and 1970 Cadillac's are hard to decipher from one another. I always go by the front grill with the 1970's having more of an egg grate versus the 1969's more slotted design. The challenge there is remembering which year goes with which grill. Whoops. There I go telling tales out of school as to how us "spotters" tell one model year from another. Wheel covers are different too with the '69's wearing the same discs Cadillac had going back to '65; the handsome chrome on the '70's is unique to that model year. That means good luck finding one if you need one. This one here has all four. Bonus!

The exterior appears to have been a light blue but the interior? A light green, perhaps? If I had my druthers, I wouldn't touch the exterior save for maybe fixing that rust spot on the lower passenger side front fender and leaving the area in primer. Hopefully that's the extent of the rot. Seeing it's a Utah car there's a good chance that's it. If this were a car native to northern, Ohio I'd say run away. Far, far, away. And as quickly as possible before you fall in love with this car's multitude of charms. 

The interior I'd reupholster although that would mean giving up what appears to be layers of Autozone seat covers and Aunt Beatrice's best throw rug. Change the carpet and door panels too although finding a passenger side door panel or, "card" as they call them, might be challenging. These aren't exactly "catalog" cars. Hopfully the dash isn't cracked but seeing it's from a sunny climate, well, sunnier than Cleveland, chances are that'll have to be swapped out too. 

So, in the end, seeing how expensive good paint jobs cost these days, we'd have a painfully cool looking rat-rod with a luxurious interior that you could drive anywhere. And for not a lot of money either, relatively speaking. What could be better?